1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for extracting entrained liquids from gas. Particularly, the invention relates to apparatus for extracting water from gas such as natural gas produced from wells. The invention is further characterized by an improved absorber wherein gas containing entrained water is intimately mixed with a liquid desiccant so that the water contained in the gas is absorbed by the desiccant, the gas thereby being stripped of the entrained water and being separated from the desiccant, the liquid desiccant being recycled and heated wherein the entrained water is driven off so that the desiccant may be repeatedly reused in the absorber.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of liquid desiccant as a means of extracting water from gas is well known in the petroleum industry. A variety of different devices have been provided wherein means is afforded for gas having water entrained therein to be contacted by liquid desiccant, such as glycol, so that the water absorbed in the gas is absorbed by the desiccant. The present known devices function satisfactorily; however, they are characterized by lack of efficiency, that is, in order to achieve sufficient intermixing of gas and desiccant so as to absorb substantially all of the water entrained in the gas, the present devices employ relatively large structures usually characterized by tall vertical height with a plurality of trays of desiccant in which the gas passes upwardly therethrough. Tall structures are inherently uneconomical. They can be transported only in a horizontal position, meaning that with the present type of devices it is difficult to prefabricate a unitized water extraction plant for shipment as a unit to a field location. With the present art the customary means of installing systems for dehydrating gas is to ship the individual units to the field location where they are assembled and interconnected with each other. This procedure is obviously more expensive than factory construction of complete gas dehydrating units which can be shipped in preassembled condition ready for use when they reach the field location.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved absorber vessel in which gas and liquid desiccants are intimately mixed in a vessel of relatively short height and volume and yet wherein the efficiency of the intermixing of the gas and desiccant is equal to or greater than absorber vessels of greater height and volume.